Youth Engagement in Agriculture in Uganda: Challenges and Prospects

The Ugandan population is to a large extent comprised of a high and increasing cohort of
young people, close to 78 percent of the population is below the age of thirty. Evidence
reveals that youth engagement in agriculture is declining amidst rising youth unemployment
yet the services and industrial sectors despite growing at considerably faster rates have not
created enough jobs for the burgeoning youthful labour force. This may have implications on
food security, unemployment, and underemployment and may undermine the government
efforts to drive economic growth through agriculture. Using data from the Uganda National
Panel Survey data of 2005/6 and 2009/10, we examine youth employment dynamics across
the different sectors and further provide insights into the determinants of youth participation
in agriculture. Using the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/09, we further document the
challenges and constraints inherent to the youth in agricultural production relative to adults. The findings reveal that youthful farmers are concentrated more in agricultural production.
Furthermore, a relatively lower percentage of youth use improved inputs (such as improved
seeds, fertilizers, agricultural chemicals and veterinary drugs). With this poor rate of
adoption of appropriate inputs, productivity is likely to remain low and constrain the youth
to subsistence farming. Furthermore, the youth are disenfranchised in the ownership and
management of critical assets in agricultural production, especially land. Land tenure issues
continue to impede many youths from engaging in agriculture, with the majority of youth
using land without exclusive ownership rights. In addition, the results point to the fact that
the youth are less likely to access credit, extension services and social capital (farmer group
membership), all key factors in agricultural transformation. The in-depth analysis results
seem to suggest that the youth with at least secondary education, males (both married and
unmarried) and those youth residing in households with a large share of adults are less likely
to engage in agriculture.